Humanitarian and medical aid organized by Medecins Sans Frontieres is loaded onto the Rainbow Warrior.
This was superbly executed today because as we dropped anchor, two fishing boats were already standing by waiting to commence the job. Brilliant work DWB!
On board the boats were Remi, one of chief logistics guys, Delphi, an epidemiologist, and Jean, one of the doctors here in Lamno. Unloading was a simple affair; roughly two truck loads of water sanitation equipment and miscellaneous items.
Several crew members went into town. Their reports were encouraging with
respect to the DWB work there. All of the water sanitation equipment we hauled over from Krueng Raya a few days ago is operational already and is supplying clean water for four IDP camps. Other materials have been used to build better clinic space The toilets are going up too which will make a great difference in terms of being able to control preventable disease. It is extremely gratifying to see our work come to fruition at such a good speed and
benefiting people affected on the ground.
--Rob
We arrived in Lamno early this morning. It was good to see the DWB guys greeting us with two fishing boats ready to load. Christian and I went in with the first load along with Remi, Jean-Paul and Delphi from DWB. Faye, Clive and Phil L joined us with the next boat. There were three trucks waiting, but there was not as much load to transfer so we rode to the DWB base camp on the empty truck.
On the way to town we saw nothing remaining on either side of the road except plastered floors that told you there once were houses on top of them. Our guide said it used to be a densely populated area. By the landing site, there were three concrete buildings still standing. The buildings looked like they weren't finished yet. Bare bricks showed through cement walls with no paint. Most of the walls in the first and second floor were gone and what seemed like a balcony facing the river had collapsed. It used to be a boarding school complex and a lot of their students didn't survive the disaster.
Aside from these three buildings, nothing stood for hundreds of meters inland. At one point on the road, we could see the three masts of the Rainbow Warrior. I am sure before the disaster it would be impossible to see.
When we arrived at the base camp, one of the DWB water trucks was going on its water distribution rounds. We went along.
On the way to the hill where the reservoir was, the view was magnificent. There were rice fields on each side and hills in the background. A nice house in the middle stood with its satellite dish. Its very strange how the tsunami wave wiped out entirely one side of the area and left the rest intact.
We arrived at the water filling spot. DWB set up a spot where they placed a 20-cubic meter collapsible water tank. The tank was connected to a hose that ran down from the reservoir. The reservoir was built to serve the small town of Lamno and distributed to houses by pipes.
When we returned, the truck was all filled up and ready to go. We followed them to their next stop, the village clinic, to fill the tank there. The clinic was served by the Pakistani Army. They had a lab and provided surgical care there. From the clinic we went to one of the big IDP camps. It was a school building, now home to about 2,000 people.
On the badminton court in front of the school there was a pile of clothes. It seemed that the TNI dropped some second-hand clothing for the refugees yesterday. The remaining pile must have been the ones they didn't want. As I got closer, I was surprised to see half of the pile was... neckties!! What on Earth were they doing here? I am sure a lot of the villagers didn't know what to do with them.
Apparently, there was a logical explanation to this. The batch must have been one of the many confiscated second-hand clothes shipments imported illegally into the country. The government instructed that all of the impounded clothing that hadn't been destroyed, be sent to Aceh.
Just across from the school-IDP camp there was a soccer field. The field was used as a landing spot for helicopters. The traffic was quite busy today. I saw a British Army helicopter landing. It was another bizarre sight. Just as the helicopter was about to land, children from all directions came and gathered around it. Very closely! An Indonesian army personnel that I spoke to said that it was difficult to control the people there, especially the children. So I guess he got tired of fending off the kids and just let them do whatever they pleased.
The helicopter spewed out boxes and boxes of bottled water and instant noodles, which turned out to be Pakistani aid. Then when they had chucked all of the boxes out, the rotors spun faster and faster and all of the children around the chopper tilted towards it, holding themselves against the wind. After the Brits flew off, they ran towards the boxes and grabbed whatever they could before a car took it all off for distribution.
We then headed back to the DWB base camp.
--Abby